User blog:Mothman Historian/WV Haunted Expo 2018 Presentation
I was invited to do a 20 to 25 minute presentation about Mothman at a Haunted Relics Expo in Moundsville WV. It was my first public speaking arrangement. I put together a speech and performed it on stage at the event on January 20th 2018. The following is the speech (as it was written on my cue cards): I am Mothman Historian, I'm a West Virginia folklore enthusiast. I'm here to talk about my favorite thing, the Mothman legend of Point Pleasant. It's an important story to know about, especially if you're from West Virginia. It has effected our culture and become a recognizable legend worldwide. The initial reports of the Mothman in Point Pleasant, West Virginia started in November of 1966 and continued from there until December of 1967. Although, it wasn't just Mothman reports, there were also reports of UFOs, Poltergeist activity in the homes of the witnesses, and encounters with the mysterious Men In Black which I will talk about later on. It seems that Mothman is the crossroad of all paranormal. All these things were reported in the small town of Point Pleasant. It was a 13 month period of High Strangeness. It all began one fateful night on November 15th 1966 when two young married couples were driving in a black 1957 Chevy to a remote hangout spot known as The TNT Area which is a place was used in World War II to manufacture and store ammunition. The couples were Linda and Roger Scarberry as well as Steve and Mary Mallette. When they arrived at the old abandoned North Power Platn they are said to have seen two large circular fiery red eyes that reflected the light from the car's headlights. That is when they are said to have noticed that the glowing red eyes belonged to a strange creature that they described as a man with wings folded behind it's back. This gray figure was said to be 6 to 7ft tall and have muscular human legs. They said the head was not a prominent feature. Witnesses and investigators speculate that perhaps it didn't have a head or had its head arched down. The bird creature spread its wings and took off straight up into the air as the teens drove away on Route 62 as fast as they could. It began gliding back and forth over their car. They said that as they got to a straight stretch they were going over 100mph but the monster was still able to keep up with them. Only when they arrived at the town's limits did the creature veer off into a nearby field. The Scarberry and Mallettes were then left wondering what to do next? You've gotta ask yourself; what would you do if you genuinely thought you saw a monster? Roger Scarberry said that if he were alone that night, he wouldn't have reported it. Thankfully there were four of them and Linda suggested they go to the police. Steve and Roger kept saying that the police would just laugh at them but eventually they all decided to tell Deputy Millard Halstead what had happened. Halstead accompanied them back to the TNT area. Hes reported to have experienced strange interference on his radio but he found no clear sign of the creature itself. That night the Mallettes stayed at the Scarberry's place, turned on all the lights and stayed awake from fear. It's interesting to learn people's reactions to these things. These are stories of mankind's reaction to monstrosity. We should never forget the psychological and human aspect. Regardless of anything, the people themselves are real. We're not so much studying strange beings but instead the human perception and response. It's always filtered throughout the mind. At the end of the day, were always reading reports from human beings. The study of the paranormal is in many ways a study of people. The following day, a press conference was held by Sheriff George Johnson to discuss the sightings. Several newspaper article were written on the subject. It was even printed internationally and went out over the Associated Press wire system. The Pacific Stars and Stripes newspaper also sent the story over to the American troops in Vietnam. The story traveled rather quickly for the time and especially through the small town. By the next night, people were filling the TNT area as they looked for the monster, a lot of them had guns. Headlines read: "Winged, Red-Eyed 'Thing' Chases Point Pleasant Couple Across Countryside" and "Monster No Joke For Those Who Saw It". The bird-like creature was simply referred to as "The Bird" by the people of Point Pleasant but the newspaper eventually dubbed him the Mothman based on the comic book character Batman which had a popular TV show starring Adam West at the time. As counter-intuitive as it may sound, the Mothman is not a moth or anyway Moth-like. It's just a name and its a good name as long as it conjures up the image in you're mind of a bird-like man with wings and red eyes. Thats all a word like that is really meant to do, to call upon an idea or concept. The Scarberry's ordeal did not end after November 15th. Linda suffered terrible nightmares and anxiety. Roger and her father even took her to the hospital because of it. Strange occurrences began happening in the Scarberry home over the following weeks. They repeatedly heard odd sounds and beeping as well as loud garbled noises that were described as being similar to that of a sped-up phonograph record. The couple later relocated but the activity seemed to follow them. Strange lights are said to have appeared in the house, objects were reportedly moved by themselves and the heavy odor of cigar smoke was frequently noted even thought no one in the home smoked. These peculiar experiences are similar to reports of Poltergeist activity or hauntings. One night at about midnight, Linda, her aunt and 5 month old infant daughter were all sleeping in her bedroom. Linda awoke and distinctly saw the shadowy form of a man in the room. The Kitchen light had been left on a dimly flowed into the room enough to see. Linda said that the man wore a black and white checkered shirt and black pants. He had coal-black crewcut hair and dark unblinking eyes. He just stood there staring at her. Linda said she was numb and couldn't move. He then took a cigarette out of his shirt pocket and lit it. There was a gold crucifix which Linda had hanging above her daughter's bed. When the strange man lit the cigarette, the crucifix reflected the light and caught his eye. He turned to look at it, as did Linda. When she turned back he was gone. Linda claimed that her aunt later woke up and said that she had dreamed the exact same events that happened in the room. The house was searched. All the doors were still locked. There was no sign of an intruder when the Scarberrys lived on 13th street, they're also said to have seen the Mothman on their roof. Linda said the creature was sitting on the roof with its wings folded around itself and its head tilted down. The Scarberry and Mallettes are of course not the only people to claim to see the Mothman. After they reported their Nov 15th story, more sightings surfaced that supposedly took place before that. On November 1st 1966, a national guardsman at the armory near Camp Conley road in Point Pleasant is said to have seen a large brown humanoid figure perched on the limb of a tree. He only reported it after the Mothman was in the papers. On November 12th 1966, Kenneth Duncan and four other men were digging a grave for his father-in-law, Homer Smith, in a cemetery near Clendenin West Virginia. The four men helping him were named: Bob Lovejoy, Bill Poole, Andrew Godby and Emil Gibson. Kenneth saw something gliding through the trees. He said it was brown and man-like. It was reported to have been in sighting for about a minute and to have glided low over their heads. This story, much like the other one, seems to have only been printed after the Mothman story broke. There were other odd things being reported in West Virginia that year. On November 14th 1966 Merle Partridge of Salem, West Virginia is said to have seen strange red lights out in his field. His German Sheppard named Bandit ran after them and never returned. On November 2nd 1966, a man named Woodrow Derenberger purportedly encountered a mysterious being by the name of Indrid Cold on the side of the road near Parkersburg. Woodrow said that Indrid Cold spoke to him telepathically. There are tons of examples of strange West Virginia legends, one notable one is the Flatwoods Monster which is a green and red monster with an ace of spades cowling that was reportedly seen by a group of people in Braxton County on Sept 12th 1952. The Mothman reports continued after the Scarberry and Mallette sighting. New York author John Keel arrived at the scene on December 7th 1966 and made repeated visits to the areas as the events unfolded. I think John Keel is one of the best authors in the fields of the paranormal. He was an adventurous writer and UFO investigator who expanded his studies to cover not just UFOs but also monster and other anomalous reports. He connects it all as a singular phenomenon. I have been greatly inspired by his work. He documented the Mothman case with local newspaper reporter Mary Hyre. Hyre wrote for the Athens Messenger. She did articles about Mothman sightings, talked to witnesses and kept John Keel up to date on the events through correspondence. John Keel later wrote a chapter about the Mothman in his book, Strange Creature From Time And Space, in the year 1970. He then famously wrote The Mothman Prophecies in 1975. I would recommend the Mothman Prophecies as essential reading. John Keel said that at least 100 people had claimed to have seen the creature over the 13th months. On November 16th 1966, Marcella Bennett is said to have had her encounter with the Mothman. Marcella, her brother Raymond Wamsley and his wife Cathy were bringing Marcella's 2 year old daughter Tina to visit their relatives, The Thomas', who lived near The TNT Area. When they got there they realized that the only ones home at the time were the Thomas Children. After exchanging a few words the Bennetts and Wamsleys headed back to their car. It was about 9pm at this time. That when they spotted some strange lights in the sky. That hovered above the tress. Raymond stopped when he got to the bottom of the steps and tried to get Marcella's attention. She told him that she didn't want to see any lights. He asked her again but she ignored him and began walking to the car, carrying her daughter. Thats when shes said to have seen the creature out of the corner of her eye as she was unlocking the car door, it stood up from behind her parked car. She first saw men's legs that looked like they were covered with gray feathers. She said the wings were drawn in toward the body. The head was tilted sideways and sunken into the shoulder area. Marcella described the creature as "Over six foot tall with feathers. It just looked like a giant bird but yet, a man." Raymond and his wife Cathy were both very frightened. He kept yelling for Marcella to run, but she was paralyzed by fear. When Marcella finally managed to turn around she took about four steps toward the house before falling to the ground in a state of shock on top of her daughter. She was unable to get up as if in a trance. Marcella heard the flapping of wings as she was trying to run. After pulling herself together, she picked up her child and ran into the house. The family locked themselves inside the house. The family locked themselves inside the house. Marcella's hands and knees were badly scrapped and bruised. She had been burned from her lit cigarette and the side of her face was bleeding from where she had fallen. The children inside were all screaming and crying in panic. Raymond Wamsley frantically phoned the police. By this time Marcella was lying on the sofa and could hear him telling the sheriff's department to get to The TNT Area because they had seen the creature. He told them that they were locked in the house but that it was still outside. The Mothman is said to have shuffled onto the porch, pushed on the door and peered into the windows. It took the police about 15 to 20 minutes to arrive at the house but the creature was gone by the time they got there. They had guns drawn and were searching all around the house. The front yard was soon full of police cars and curious people. Raymond talked to the police and filled out paper work and police reports. Marcella Bennett described it as the most frightening experience of her life and something she felt uncomfortable talking about. She said "I would think I could hear the wings flapping and noise on top of the roof. I kept feeling that this thing had followed us home". Somehow, she felt the creature now had a link to her and would come back. She never drove at night after her experience and had trouble sleeping because of her horrible nightmares. She even sought medical attention at Holzer Hospital to deal with her anxieties and lack of sleep. She didn't want to tell the doctor what she had seen but the doctor then asked if she was one of the people who had seen The Bird in Point Pleasant. She would feel the Mothman's presence at times that would send her into a panic, for example she would feel as if he was in the back seat of her car, hit the brakes and turn to look behind her. So Marcella's brother Raymond saw lights in the sky during the Nov 16th encounter. This is similar to what others were reporting in the area at the time. People were seeing these lights in the sky like clockwork. These lights, also known as Unidentified Flying Objects, were reported to the newspaper so frequently that a local press office had to set up a dedicated "UFO desk" to deal with these reports. Reporter Mary Hyre often wrote about them. She and John Keel claimed to have seen them several times. Keel said he lost count of how many times he'd seen them. Keel thought of UFOs as basically large environmental light anomalies. Most reports of UFOs do seem to be, simply stories of lights in the sky. John Keel considered them to be made of energy and beyond our current understanding. He also noted how they seemed to mess with electricity. Keel found that the most reports of UFOs occurred on Wednesday. Making Wednesday the strangest day of the week. One night John Keel and Mary Hyre were on a hilltop and witnessed several of these lights. Keel pointed his flashlight in the air and blinked it three times. They said one of the lights in the sky blinked back the same pattern. On one occasion he flashed "Descend" in Morse code and the object appeared to move downward. UFO watching became a pass time for many in West Virginia and the Ohio Valley. Other notable occurrences were the cattle mutilations and strange telephone interference. Both of which John Keel investigated into. Now, we don't have time to cover all the Mothman sightings so I'll fast forward a bit. At 10:30 AM on November 27th 1966, Mary Hyre's 18 year old niece, Connie Carpenter was driving home. She was outside of New Haven, WV. She saw what she described as a 7ft tall man-shaped thing with large circular glowing red eyes. She said a pair of 10ft wings unfolded from its back and it took off straight up into the air then headed toward Connie's car. All she could focus on were the creature's red eyes. She managed to get away, driving home as quickly as possible. Connie later heard loud beeps outside her bedroom windows on several occasions. On February 22nd 1967 as she was walking to school a man in a black 1949 Buick drove up and tried to pull her into the car. She escaped and the next days someone slipped a threatening note under her door. Reporter Mary Hyre said that strange men in dark clothing had visited her office. She said they asked her questions about the UFO reports and were very frightening. Other people in the area also reported to see these mysterious Men In Black. The Men In Black reportedly told witnesses not to talk about their UFO or monster encounters. They are said to wear black suits and drive around in black vehicles. John Keel and other investigator have said that MIB impersonated people. They seem to be the personification of censorship and deception. The exact opposite of the honesty and openness that many people strive for. Because of their unordinary physical characteristics and behaviors many consider the MIB to be inhuman. One thing that I noticed when I was reading about the Grim Reaper and comparable mythology is that the Grim Reaper or the personification of death, is sometimes depicted and described as being in burial wrappings. I was thinking; whats the modern equivalent of burial cloth? What do we dress the deceased in, in modern times? and the answer, if its a male, is typically a black suit. So perhaps this is an evolved form of the same kind of myth. The Men In Black were already somewhat introduced into UFO'lore to a certain extent in around 1953 but the weren't really well known or popularized until the 1970's when John Keel wrote about them in his books. However, folklore stories of this kind have been around throughout human history. Myths of mysterious strangers in dark clothing are nothing new. The Men In Black seem to be the UFO and monster investigators version of that story of their interaction with that myth. The town of Point Pleasant is located along the Kanawha and Ohio rivers. Spanning the Ohio river was an eye-bar chain suspension bridge known as The Silver Bridge. On December 15th 1967, The Silver Bridge collapsed and 46 people died. The cause of the collapse was a fracture in the bridge's 13th steel pinned eye-bar joint. It was considered the worst bridge disaster in U.S history at the time. In the wake of the tragedy, the Mothman legend went silent. Reporter Mary Hyre died on February 15th 1970 and John Keel dedicated his book, The Mothman Prophecies, "To Mary Hyre and the people of West Virginia." Eventually, a movie loosely based on The Mothman Prophecies came out in 2002. That same year The Mothman Festival began. A Mothman statue was added to the town of Point Pleasant by artist Bob Roach in 2003 and The Mothman Museum was opened by local Jeff Wamsley in 2005. Mothman sightings may have halted in Point Pleasant for a while after the bridge collapse but the creature has been reportedly seen in the area over the years since then. These occasional reports have yet to be as frequent as the original 13 moths from November '66 to December '67. For example, in the 1990's a man named Darren Hayes claimed to have encountered the Mothman along the roads of The TNT Area. More West Virginia sightings are said to have occurred the 2000's and 2010's. The most recent Mothman reports in Point Pleasant that I'm aware of at the moment is the report from November 20th 2016 which made local news. The Mothman Lives! The legend has become an important part of WV art and folklore. So embrace your roots, know your surroundings and support your local monsters by continuing to tell their stories and keeping the legends alive. I think a lesson you can learn from the Mothman story and the work of John Keel is to expand your horizons by studying the paranormal in its entirety. Meaning: Monsters, Spirits and UFOs. All of these things are present in the Mothman story and in the folkloric traditions of mankind. These legends share commonality and universal trends. If we view these stories not only on a case by case basis but also a big picture, then perhaps one day we will be able to understand why so many people report to have these experiences and what they mean for humanity and the human condition. Thank you. Category:Blog posts